General practice nurses feel scapegoated amid claims of slacking
Posted 27 October 2022 - 14:10
Allegations that GP surgery staff remain ‘behind closed doors’ are unfair, and short-staffing will get worse if action is not taken to shore-up workforce, nurses tell MPs
General practice staff are being scapegoated in the media with suggestions they are not working hard enough and remain behind closed doors, a nurse told MPs.
Nurse practitioner Julia Judd said she had felt embarrassed to admit she had worked in a GP surgery because of ‘horrendous’ media coverage.
In a report to the Commons health and social care committee on the future of general practice, Ms Judd said: ‘The media narrative has reinforced the closed-surgery perception – salute the NHS (secondary care), scapegoat general practice. This fuels the flames and adds to the negative connotation of GPs “doing nothing”, behind closed doors.’
The report calls on the government and NHS England to acknowledge there is a crisis in primary care, with patients facing poor access to general practice and patient safety at risk as a result of unsustainable pressures on staff.
Nurses giving written evidence to the inquiry, which opened last year, also called for more advanced nurse practitioners (ANP) to be trained amid concerns many will retire in the next decade.
Practice nurse Sarah Konig said she was worried general practice is ‘cracking under the expectation of patients, government and employers’, with practice nurses often left feeling unappreciated.
She claimed recruitment of GPs was virtually impossible, putting more pressure on other staff including nurses.
Others called for a focus on the recruitment of new staff. Advanced nurse practitioner (ANP) Joanna Hanks said her role requires ‘a great deal of life and nursing experience’ but most ANPs were close to retirement.
‘I have under a year before retirement. As far as I am aware, there are no sustainable plans to train more ANPs to help with the ever-growing need for their services. This needs consideration immediately if primary care is to survive the increasing demand placed on it,’ she said.
The nurses’ comments chime with concerns RCN professional lead for education Heather Randle raised with MPs in June when she told a parliamentary hearing that practice nurses were working flat out, yet can feel invisible. She said there was little incentive for them to enter general practice because pay, terms and conditions were generally better in the NHS.
NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care have been contacted for comment.
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